Even when a British player is hitting it, a tennis ball can reach well over 100mph. That's considerably faster than the fittest sparrow. So the bird that came up against Jamie Murray at the Australian Open never had a chance. This mere "baby", as Jamie's brother Andy called it, died after getting in the way of one of his practice shots. "Jamie's serve is bigger than he thought," his mother tweeted on Tuesday, while Jamie himself said he was "shocked".
Sadly, this isn't the first casualty at the Australian Open, leaving some commenters talking of a "bird curse". In 2002, during the men's doubles semi-final, France's Michael Llodra smashed his racket into a passing house martin. One of his opponents, Julien Boutter, promptly gave it the last rites and all the players paid their respects.
If there is a bird curse, however, it's not confined to Australia, or to tennis. Elsewhere, baseball players Randy Johnson and Dave Winfield, footballer Gaston Aguirre and cricketers Clive Lloyd, Jacques Rudolph, Paul Reiffel and Ajay Jadeja have all killed our feathered friends. None set out with mayhem in mind – unlike golfer Tripp Isenhour, who in 2007 hit ball after ball at a noisy hawk. After plea bargaining, he ended up with a year's probation, a $500 fine and widespread condemnation. Perhaps fearful of a similar backlash, Murray has been keen to point out he wasn't aiming at his victim. "I didn't intentionally try to hit it," he insists.
